Describe Auckland/Gardening/Vegetables here.
Tips From YouTube Qopzeep
First rule of vegetable gardening is to grow what you love. BUT if you're looking to save costs, grow veggies that are expensive to buy. Vegetables like lettuces, basil, parsley, coriander and other herbs and leafy greens which can be picked multiple times can yield a lot. I've harvested multiple kilos per square meter. And don't forget about succession crops: beetroot and radishes can be grown in a matter of weeks, so they can go before or after a crop, like your potato bed. Garlic doesn't need its own bed, they need so little space that they can be planted between other veggies, like fennel or carrots. Plant sprawling plants at the edges of your beds and let them trail across the ground or better yet, train them up your fence, where they'll stay out of the way and get extra warmth. Lastly, you can easily grow veggies through the winter, if you get them in by August or September. For next year: either top up with a healthy dose of compost or amend with fertiliser (chicken manure pellets are cheap and work just fine). You had a great start (onions are not that easy!) but you can definitely triple or quadruple your savings with a little more time investment and smart planting :)!
From YouTube gen81465
A handful (or two) of helpful hints to (possibly) turn "failures" into "success":
1. Take the tomatoes that got eaten by the bugs and don't throw them away. You will notice they still have seeds in them, which will grow into next year's tomato crop. Spread the seeds out (along with their gelatinous insides) on a paper towel and dry them. Some people even cut a thin slice of tomato (with seeds inside) and plant it directly in the ground. The gelatin inside is food for the plants, but you can boost their startup, especially considering you have bees. When you start each tomato seed, surround it with a drop of honey and some cinnamon. That will give it the nourishing boost it needs in its critical first days of sprouting.
2. To get rid of slugs, put out a saucer or soup bowl with beer in it. Slugs will get attracted to it, crawl inside, get drunk, and drown. If you don't put out all the beer, when the slugs are gone, you can celebrate and get drunk on the rest of it.
3. Another culprit for tomatoes is the tobacco hornworm, which can grow as large as your thumb. When the plants are dry, dust them with food-grade diatomaceous earth. It's basically microscopic shards of silica glass that tears up the juicy bodies of the bugs and dehydrates them. Since rain rinses the dust off, reapply after storms (once the plants are dry again).
4. If you find that not all of the tomato flowers are getting pollinated, help them out a bit. Take an electric toothbrush and touch the back of the flower. It will loosen the pollen and will increase your yield dramatically, as tomatoes are technically self-pollinating.
5. Change which bed you plant the tomatoes in, each year, as they tend to strip the soil of a lot of the nutrients; it will give them the best chance of thriving. Also, use an old blender or food processor to chop up the tomato stalks and leaves and mulch the area with them. All of the vitamins and minerals that were trapped in the plants will get returned to the soil.
6. Cut your seed potatoes into slips (chunks like you did when cooking them), making sure each slip has at least one eye. Each piece will grow into a full plant just as the whole potatoes did.
7. Plant potatoes in expanding fabric barrels. Start out with the barrel folded down and put potato slips into 4 inches of soil. As the plant starts to grow, roll the fabric bag upwards and add more soil to cover all but the very top couple of leaves. All of the buried leaves will now sprout additional potatoes on them. Be sure to use the dark black fabric barrels, as potatoes are a hot weather crop that are also very intolerant of light (which causes the potatoes to discolor). The bags are available on Amazon for about $20 for 3 bags. This should grow enough potatoes to encompass the entire two rows you planted, but only take up the horizontal space of 3 plants.
8. Practice "lasagna gardening" (look it up on Google). Dig into your soil and layer black and white newsprint sheets. They will decompose, loosen the soil and block the light so all the weed seeds will get cooked and not sprout. Also, when you put down a layer of newspaper, add any of last year's plant stuff as mulch, and wet the whole thing down. If possible, also spread a layer of earthworms in the garden, as they help to create mulch. And if you don't get into too much trouble with your environmental agencies, before you wet the newspaper, burn it it and it creates "bio-char" (or use the wood ash from your pizza oven). Note: If you smoke, don't touch the tomato plants with your bare hands. Tobacco mosaic virus will get to those plants, and if an infected plant rubs against a healthy one, it can transfer the virus. Also don't use cigarette ashes as mulch. As a top layer, use some black garden fabric or black plastic with small holes punched in it for water drainage. The sun will heat up the fabric and speed up the mulch/decomposition process.
9. One more tomato suggestion: I noticed that you were very effective in pruning the non-fruit-bearing branches from your tomato plants. Try this trick: leave the very bottom branch (the sucker) attached and bury the middle part of it in the soil with just the top of it sticking out. It will root itself and become another entire tomato plant.
10. Many root crops will sprout new plants by cutting off the leafy top portion and propping it up in a jar of water. Check out this article, which pertains to carrots: https://www.gardeningchannel.com/carrots-regrown-from-tops/
I guess that's a couple handfuls (10 ideas = 10 fingers worth). Enjoy and best of luck in your garden.
11. Ok, here's another one for good measure: Cucumbers can grow vertically quite easily. As the plant starts to spread along the ground, pick up the end of the plant and gently weave it into a trellis, which can be something as simple as 3-4 pieces of stick, tied together in a teepee formation, with additional twine wrapped around it. Keeping the cucumbers off the ground will help prevent them rotting.
12. And here's one more to make an even dozen: Plant marigolds around your tomato plants. The essential oils in the plant help drive away the caterpillars and moths. .